Popcorn might be better than eating fruits

London: Surprisingly, a popular snack like popcorn has plenty of eye popping goodness too -- it has nearly twice as much of antiodixants as many fruits and vegetables, which combat cells that damage molecules.

Researchers discovered one serving of popcorn has up to 300 mg of antioxidants and fibre, much of it being concentrated in its crunchy hulls, almost double that of the 160 mg for all fruits per serving.

Popcorn was found to have a high level of concentrated antioxidants or polyphenols, because it is made up of just four percent water while they are more diluted in fruits and vegetables with 90 percent being water.

Researcher Joe Vinson from the University of Scranton, US, who led the study, said: "Those hulls deserve more respect. They are nutritional gold nuggets," according to the Daily Mail.

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"Air-popped popcorn has the lowest number of calories while microwave popcorn has twice as many calories as air-popped. Popcorn may be the perfect snack food. It's the only snack that is 100 percent unprocessed whole grain," said Vinson.

"One serving of popcorn will provide more than 70 percent of the daily intake of whole grain. The average person only gets about half a serving of whole grains a day, and popcorn could fill that gap in a very pleasant way," concluded Vinson.

But he warned that popcorn doesn't contain vital vitamins and nutrients found in fruit and vegetables. These findings were presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego.